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| Attitude of Teachers towards Inclusive Education on the basis of Gender | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Paper Id :
16029 Submission Date :
2022-04-03 Acceptance Date :
2022-04-18 Publication Date :
2022-04-22
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| Abstract |
The purpose of present research paper was to compare attitude of teachers towards inclusive education w.r.t Teacher, Teaching Learning Process, Administrator, Psychological Aspect, Social Aspect, and Evaluation on the basis of gender. Out of 23 districts of Punjab 03 districts (Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran) were selected. From each district 25 elementary schools were selected and from each school 03 to 04 teachers were selected. Data were collected by using the scale to measure attitude towards inclusive education for elementary school teachers. The result of one way ANOVA followed by t test revealed that male teachers had more favorable attitude towards inclusive education on dimension ‘Administrator’ than female teachers. This study further reveled that there was no significant difference in the dimensions ‘Teacher’, ‘Teaching Learning Process’, ‘Psychological Aspect’, ‘Social Aspect’ and ‘Evaluation’ of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender.
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| Keywords | Inclusive Education, Attitude, Teaching Learning Process, Elementary School Teachers, Gender, Social Aspect. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduction |
We live in the world of diversities and individual differences. Such diversities and differences are part and parcel of our life. Inclusive education refers to a model wherein students with special needs spend most or all of their time with non-special (general education) needs students. Inclusion is a concept that sees children with diverse abilities as full time participants in and as members of their neighbourhood schools and communities (Hanees, Jazeel, and Saravanakumar, 2013). Inclusive Education is a milestone in the path of redesigning the national school curriculum (Jazeel, 2018). It is an important issue for establishing equity and equality in education and is a kind of ‘zero rejection’ policy where no one student is refuted or neglected by the school at any ground (Jana & Tarini Halder, 2018). Inclusive education means that all students attend and are welcomed by their neighbourhood schools in age-appropriate, regular classes and are supported to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of school life. It is about how we develop and design our schools, classrooms, programs and activities so that all students learn and participate together. Neighbourhood schools are the heart of communities and culture (Jazeel, 2017). Advani and Chadha (2002) states that, “Inclusive education aims to provide a favourable setting for achieving equal opportunity and full participation for all thus bringing children with special needs well within the purview of mainstream education. Success of Inclusive education depends on various factors, in which teacher is the most significant factor. In this context, teachers can play big role in implementing inclusion in education in schools. The attitudes of teachers are important to find out how they can work for inclusion as a new approach in education. Positive role and attitude of the teachers is essential to reach this realistic goal. For becoming a competent and successful inclusive teacher, it is necessary to have required knowledge, skills and positive attitude. Attitude is concerned to know the feelings and reactions of the teachers towards of inclusive education and its different aspects.
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| Objective of study | To compare attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender w.r.t. Teacher, Teaching Learning Process, Administrator, Psychological Aspect, Society or Social Aspect, and Evaluation. |
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| Review of Literature | Singh et al. (2020) discovered teachers’
attitudes towards inclusive education among their different demographic
variables i.e. Mode of service, Gender, Locality and revealed that attitude of
teachers towards inclusive education was moderate to a favourable level.
Pre-service and urban teachers had a more positive/favourable attitude towards
inclusive education than the attitude of In-service and rural teachers,
respectively. In contrast, there was no significant difference between the
attitude of male and female teachers towards inclusive education. Gandhi et al.
(2020) examined the attitude of primary school teachers towards inclusive
education from government and private schools on the basis gender and locale of
schools. The study was conducted on a sample of 100 primary school teachers
from the district Fatehabad of the state Haryana. The statistical analysis was
done by making use of the mean, S.D. and t-test and revealed that there was
significant difference between private and government primary school teachers’
attitude towards inclusive education. Private teachers’ attitude towards
inclusive education was more positive as compared to their government primary
teachers. No significant difference was found in the attitudes of primary
school teachers towards inclusive education for both the schools with respect
to gender and locale of schools. Sharma, (2019) conducted study on attitude of
teachers towards inclusive education by their age, gender, qualifications,
training, disability and teaching experience. Teachers are found generally
positive towards inclusive education. In a Likert scale ranging from 1 to
5(highly positive), the overall attitude of teachers is 3.32. Looking attitude
by gender, male teachers are found slightly positive towards inclusive
education than female ones. Similarly, younger teachers are found positive than
older teachers. Trained and experienced teachers are also found positive than
untrained and inexperienced ones. In addition, teachers with some disability
are found to have more positive attitude than other group of teachers. Khan
& Basak, (2018) investigated the attitude of teachers towards inclusive
education on the basis of their gender, stream, category, qualification,
teaching experience and their residential area. 118 high school teachers as
sample were randomly selected from 10 high schools in Purba Bardhaman district,
West Bengal, India. The result revealed that there were no difference in
attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender,
stream, category, educational qualification, teaching experience and their
residential area. Jazeel, (2018) Conducted study is to find out the attitude of
teachers towards Inclusive Education in Akkaraipattu Education Zone and revealed
that most teachers have favourable attitude towards inclusive education. There
are significant differences in the attitude teachers towards inclusive
education based on gender, locale of the school and type of school. Galaterou
& Antoniou, (2017) investigated teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive
education in relation to demographics (gender and age) and their occupational
stress levels. The research involved 208 primary and secondary school teachers,
working in urban and suburban areas of five prefectures of Greece. Teachers’
gender, age and occupational stress served as independent variables. Teachers
demonstrated marginally positive attitudes towards inclusion, which were
correlated with their age. Specifically, younger teachers expressed more
positive attitudes than their older colleagues. However, no differences were
detected between men and women. Furthermore, relatively high levels of stress
were observed, while the specific stressors were detected. Finally, teachers’
attitudes were partly correlated to occupational stress, as less positive
attitudes towards inclusive education were associated with increased levels of
stress. Jana & Tarini Halder, (2018) conducted study to find out the level
of attitude of secondary school teachers towards inclusive education and to
compare in terms of gender, and teaching experience. For finding the attitude
towards inclusive education a survey based descriptive research were conducted
on conveniently selected 242 secondary teachers from 26 randomly selected
schools under WBBSE and WBCHSE in the geographical area of Paschim Medinipur
district of West Bengal. The researcher finds out that there is alacuna in
favorable attitude towards inclusive education and teachers with <10 years
of teaching experiences have greater favorable attitude than the teachers with
≥10 years of teaching experiences. So, teaching experience is not an
influencing factor for making favorable attitude towards inclusion. The
researcher also finds out that female and male secondary teachers don't differ
in their attitude towards inclusion. Chavhan, (2013) studied student teachers
attitude towards inclusive education and to compare their attitude on the basis
gender, caste and locality and researcher found that there is significant
difference in Attitude towards Inclusive Education. The female student teachers
have favorable attitude towards inclusive education than male student teachers.
The student teachers’ caste and locality does not have any influence on
attitude towards inclusive education. Mohanty, (2017) conducted study to study
the attitudinal dispositions of elementary school teachers towards inclusive
education with reference to gender, teaching experience and locality. The data
was collected from the 120 elementary school teachers of Choudwar block and
Cuttack city of Odisha. The sample was selected through stratified random
sampling technique. A self-developed five-point attitude scale was used for
collection of data. The findings of the study revealed that, gender, teaching
experience and locality were the factors for developing differential attitudes
among the teachers as there were significant differences in the mean attitude
scores of elementary school teachers towards various aspects of inclusive
education with reference to gender, teaching experience and locality. |
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| Methodology | Descriptive Research Method was used. |
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| Sampling |
Population in the present study
is teacher’s teaching in elementary school of three districts i.e. Amritsar,
Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran of Punjab state affiliated to Punjab School Education
Board, Mohali. In these three districts there were 8 to 11 educational
blocks existing (8 in Tarn Taran, 9 in Amritsar and 11 in Gurdaspur).
From each block 3 to 5 elementary schools were randomly selected keeping
in mind representation of all types of communities existing in the districts. Total
75 schools were selected at second stage of sampling process. On an
average, from each school three teachers were selected purposefully. Table 1: Sample
Structure of Schools and Teachers
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| Tools Used | Scale to measure attitude towards inclusive education for elementary school teachers developed by Gursewak Singh Bhullar and Dr. Tirath Singh (2018) was used to collect the data. Dimensions of scale are Teacher, Teaching Learning Process, Administrator, Psychological Aspect, Social Aspect, and Evaluation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Analysis | Data Analysis and Interpretation Table 2: Dimension
Wise Comparison of The Attitude of Teachers towards Inclusive Education on the
Basis of Gender
**
p≤0.01, NS= Not Significant at 0.05 level. Table
2 shows that t- value for gender is 1.49 which is not significant at.05 level.
It means that male and female teachers do not differ on dimension ‘Teacher’ of
attitude towards inclusive education. On basis of this null hypothesis “There
is no significant difference in the attitude of teachers towards inclusive
education on the basis of gender” is accepted. It may be concluded that there
was no significant difference in the dimension ‘Teacher’ of attitude of
teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. Table
2 shows that t- value for gender is.88 which is not significant at.05 level. It
means that male and female teachers do not differ on dimension ‘Teaching
Learning Process’ of attitude towards inclusive education. On basis of this
null hypothesis “There is no significant difference in the attitude of teachers
towards inclusive education on the basis of gender” is accepted. It may be
concluded that there was no significant difference in the dimension ‘Teaching
Learning Process’ of attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the
basis of gender. Table
2 shows that t- value for gender is 3.743 which is significant at.01 level. It
means that male and female teachers differ on dimension ‘Administrator’ of
attitude towards inclusive education. On basis of this null hypothesis “There
is no significant difference in the attitude of teachers towards inclusive
education on the basis of gender” is rejected. Further the mean score of males
is higher than mean score of females. It may be concluded that male teachers
had more favorable attitude towards dimension ‘Administrator’ of inclusive
education than female teachers. Table
2 shows that t- value for gender is 1.66 which is not significant at.05 level.
It means that male and female teachers do not differ on dimension
‘Psychological Aspects’ of attitude towards inclusive education. On basis of
this null hypothesis “There is no significant difference in the attitude of
teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender” is accepted. It
may be concluded that there was no significant difference in the dimension
‘Psychological Aspects’ of attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on
the basis of gender. Table
2 shows that t- value for gender is.22 which is not significant at.05 level. It
means that male and female teachers do not differ on dimension ‘Society and
Social Aspects’ of attitude towards inclusive education. On basis of this null
hypothesis “There is no significant difference in the attitude of teachers
towards inclusive education on the basis of gender” is accepted. It may be
concluded that there was no significant difference in the dimension ‘Society
and Social Aspects’ of attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the
basis of gender. Table
2 shows that t- value for gender is 1.355 which is not significant at.05 level.
It means that male and female teachers do not differ on dimension ‘Evaluation’
of attitude towards inclusive education. On basis of this is the null
hypothesis “There is no significant difference in the attitude of teachers
towards inclusive education on the basis of gender” is accepted. It may be
concluded that there was no significant difference in the dimension
‘Evaluation’ of attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis
of gender. Table 2 shows that t- value for gender is.47 which is not
significant at.05 level. It means that male and female teachers do not differ
on Attitude towards inclusive education. On basis of this is the null
hypothesis “There is no significant difference in the attitude of teachers
towards inclusive education on the basis of gender” is accepted. It may be
concluded that there was no significant difference in attitude of teachers
towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. |
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| Result and Discussion |
The next finding of the present
research was that the there was no significant difference in the dimension
teacher and teaching learning process of attitude of teachers towards inclusive
education on the basis of gender. On the other hand Male teachers had
more favourable attitude towards dimension administrator of inclusive education
than female teachers. Further, there was no significant difference in the
dimension psychological aspects, society and social aspects, evaluation of
attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. There
was no significant difference in attitude of teachers towards inclusive
education on the basis of gender. Smitha and Sujatha (2010) found that the
teachers have unfavourable attitude towards Inclusive Education for them. The
male teachers possessed more unfavourable attitude than the female teachers
towards Inclusive Education for the disabled. The male teachers have more
favourable attitude than the female teachers towards the curricular aspect of
Inclusive Education for the disabled. It is hoped that that teachers will
acquire knowledge and develop favourable attitude for the disabled in the
future. Dhull and Chaudhary (2011) conducted study on two groups of visually
challenged male and female adolescents from Haryana and Delhi. Significant
difference was not found in the adjustment level of partially visually
challenged male and female adolescents. Chavhan (2013) found that the
female student teachers have Favourable attitude towards inclusive education
than male student teachers. The student teachers caste and locality does not
have any influence on attitude towards inclusive education. Syed and
Surieyah (2020) found that male and female primary school teachers don’t differ
significantly in their attitude towards inclusive education. Syed and Surieyah
(2020) revealed teachers from both genders believe that inclusive education
provide students with opportunities for mutual communication which makes them
to understand and accept individual diversity. Sarris et al. (2018) showed
that school teachers generally are in favour of including students with disabilities
or special needs, although their perceptions differ significantly based on some
demographic factors. The
gender of a teacher and their attitudes to inclusion was identified in research
as being a significant factor contributing to how teachers perceive inclusion
(Alquraini; 2012; Priyadarshini & Thangarajathi, 2016; Sandhu, 2017; Vaz,
et al., 2015). Male teachers were mostly more negative towards inclusion than
female teachers, yet research does not indicate whether these results reflect
the attitudes towards the concept of inclusion or the actual reality of
inclusive practice (Priyadarshini & Thangarajathi, 2016; Sandhu, 2017; Vaz,
et al., 2015). Vaz et al (2015) reported that females hold more positive
attitudes towards inclusion due to their greater tolerance and conative
attitude, yet also indicated the research did not differentiate between male
and female teacher attitudes towards the practice of inclusion compared to
contemplating the idea of inclusion. Analysis and comparison between differing
perceptions related to the theoretical and practical application of inclusion
and how these individually contribute to teacher attitudes should be
investigated further. Research revealed cultural circumstances influence how gender correlates with teacher attitudes towards inclusion, as seen in the research conducted by Alquraini (2012). Alquraini (2012) examined both male and female general classroom and special education teacher’s perspectives towards inclusion of students with severe intellectual disabilities. From the 161 male and 139 female participants, male teachers were more positive towards 8 inclusion. This data is contradictory to other research (Monsen, Ewing & Kwoka, 2015; Priyadarshini & Thangarajathi, 2016; Sandhu, 2017; Vaz, et al., 2015), yet Alquraini (2012) theorised the results reflect the differences between cultural and religious contexts as this data is consistent with other studies conducted in Saudi Arabia (Al-Ahmadi, 2009, as cited in Alquarini, 2012). However, there is no indication of the ratio between female special education and regular classroom teachers in this study, and as females in Saudi Arabia receive their education separate from males and in specific subjects either relating to perceived wifely duties or certain occupations available to women, perhaps very few female participatory teachers received training in inclusive practices, therefore influencing the overall results. |
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| Findings | 1. There was no significant difference in the dimension ‘Teacher’ of attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. 2. There was no significant difference in the dimension ‘Teaching Learning Process’ of attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. 3. There is significant difference in the dimension ‘Administrator’ of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. Further the mean score of males is higher than mean score of females. It may be concluded that male teachers had more favourable attitude towards dimension Administrator of inclusive education than female teachers. 4. There was no significant difference in the dimension ‘Psychological Aspects’ of attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. 5. There was no significant difference in the dimension ‘Society and Social Aspects’ of attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. 6. There was no significant difference in the dimension ‘Evaluation’ of attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. 7. Overall there was no significant difference in attitude of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Conclusion |
Male teachers had more favorable attitude towards inclusive education on dimension ‘Administrator’ than female teachers. This study further reveled that there was no significant difference in the dimensions ‘Teacher’, ‘Teaching Learning Process’, ‘Psychological Aspect’, ‘Social Aspect’ and ‘Evaluation’ of teachers towards inclusive education on the basis of gender. |
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| Suggestions for the future Study | The findings suggest that various in-service programmers and courses on inclusive education should be introduced to the general school teachers. Inclusive education should be included in the curriculum of teacher education program on a compulsory basis. Inclusive education should be incorporated in both pre- service and in-service teacher education programme on compulsory basis. In every school one special teacher should be allotted. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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